German payments firm Wirecard, recently rumoured to be of interest to Chinese giant Alipay, showed off its credentials with impressive growth in revenue and profit.

Consolidated revenue grew by 33 per cent to €452 million in the first half of 2016 (Q2 consolidated revenue increased 34 per cent to €241 million), while EBITDA clocked up a 35 per cent growth in H1 to €132 million (Q2 EBITDA grew by 35 per cent to €70 million).

The firm said it is benefiting from strong gains in its core business of payment processing and credit card acceptance, as well as the newer activities of card issuing, mobile payment and mobile point of sale (mPOS).

On the subject of card issuance, CEO Markus Braun described how its HCE-based prepaid card called boon is available in a number of European countries. It was launched in the UK through cooperation with Apple Pay, claiming it to be “the first fully digitalised and bank independent mobile payment solution in the Apple Pay Wallet”. The solution will be launched in France shortly, again with Apple Pay.

There was speculation less than two months ago that Chinese payment firm Alipay was in negotiations about taking a 25 per cent stake in the German firm.

At the time, Wirecard said it was in talks with a potential strategic partner without giving any further details. Subsequently it announced the acquisition of Citi Prepaid Card Services to secure entry into North America.

Management reaffirmed its forecast of EBITDA of between €290 million and €310 million for the 2016 fiscal year.